One day I will have something meaningful to say about real shaving gear. Until then:
My current shaving bowl is something I found in my kitchen cupboard. It is a Pampered Chef collapsible silicone/plastic bowl. The white bits are hard plastic, the green section is silicone. It's pretty big for this usage, measuring 8" in diameter at the top, and 4" at the bottom (measured underneath rather than inside the bowl itself). A RazoRock German 37 is included for scale:
I like using this for bowl lathering because:
--it is so big I never bump the sides of it with my knuckles or the brush handle
--it has a non-slip ring on the bottom so I barely even have to hold it with my other hand, which is good because I use that to clear the lather out of the brush a few times while lathering to help incorporate all the water equally.
--it is completely silent. Doesn't make any noise if I bump it or move it around while working with it. Bliss.
This makes this bowl way better than the original soup bowl I was using, which was noisy to handle, breakable, and slippery to hold.
Cons of the "Pampered Chef Shave Bowl": it is really big on the counter. And, there is no texture on the surface to help create lather. I tried adding folds of duct tape to see if that would create ridges and didn't like the result. I considered running lines of rubber glue across the bottom, but decided against it. (Shoe Goo dries pretty well and the smell dies away eventually, but that's not a product meant for skin...)
Here's a pic in its collapsed form:
I don't know what this cost, since it was originally a gift.
I enjoy repurposing things like this for hobbies. I wonder if any of you have a similar example?
All that said, I do have my first actual shaving bowl on its way with a Christmas gift order: the silicon shave bowl from Stirling. We will see if it addresses the two shortcomings of this one (size and textured surface). I will follow up with results.
Thanks for reading my first "review!"
My current shaving bowl is something I found in my kitchen cupboard. It is a Pampered Chef collapsible silicone/plastic bowl. The white bits are hard plastic, the green section is silicone. It's pretty big for this usage, measuring 8" in diameter at the top, and 4" at the bottom (measured underneath rather than inside the bowl itself). A RazoRock German 37 is included for scale:
I like using this for bowl lathering because:
--it is so big I never bump the sides of it with my knuckles or the brush handle
--it has a non-slip ring on the bottom so I barely even have to hold it with my other hand, which is good because I use that to clear the lather out of the brush a few times while lathering to help incorporate all the water equally.
--it is completely silent. Doesn't make any noise if I bump it or move it around while working with it. Bliss.
This makes this bowl way better than the original soup bowl I was using, which was noisy to handle, breakable, and slippery to hold.
Cons of the "Pampered Chef Shave Bowl": it is really big on the counter. And, there is no texture on the surface to help create lather. I tried adding folds of duct tape to see if that would create ridges and didn't like the result. I considered running lines of rubber glue across the bottom, but decided against it. (Shoe Goo dries pretty well and the smell dies away eventually, but that's not a product meant for skin...)
Here's a pic in its collapsed form:
I don't know what this cost, since it was originally a gift.
I enjoy repurposing things like this for hobbies. I wonder if any of you have a similar example?
All that said, I do have my first actual shaving bowl on its way with a Christmas gift order: the silicon shave bowl from Stirling. We will see if it addresses the two shortcomings of this one (size and textured surface). I will follow up with results.
Thanks for reading my first "review!"
